Attaining information literacy: An investigation of the relationship between skill level,self-estimates of skill,and library anxiety

Competency theory predicts a miscalibration between students' self-assessments of their information literacy skills and their actual skill level. This study investigates whether such a disparity is evident among incoming freshmen who test as non-proficient on a standardized test of information literacy. In addition, this study analyzes Information Literacy Test scores and library anxiety test scores to provide preliminary data on whether library anxiety is related to information literacy skill attainment. Findings reveal that the relationship between information literacy skills and self-assessments predicted by competency theory are evident in the domain of information literacy. This study did not find an association between information literacy skill scores and total library anxiety scores. However, a significant negative correlation between information literacy scores and the subscale “knowledge of the library” indicates that as information literacy scores rise, anxiety scores related to a lack of knowledge of the library fall. The findings suggest that traditional information literacy instruction may not be effective with non-proficient students, who are unlikely to see themselves as needing or benefiting from such instruction.     

Opinions and experiences of university faculty regarding library research instruction: Results of a web-based survey at the University of Southern Colorado

In March 2000, all 188 University of Southern Colorado (USC) nonlibrary faculty members were surveyed to determine their needs and opinions regarding library research instruction. Forty-four (23.40%) of the faculty responded to questions concerning their past experiences with library research instruction, the frequency with which they use various library and Internet resources, the types of library research instruction they currently use with their students, and their level of support for proposed new programs. Results showed an overwhelming interest on the part of respondents for an online library research skills tutorial. The survey also revealed the need for professional development opportunities for faculty. A higher proportion of respondents with 10 years or less of teaching experience than those with more than 10 years of experience indicated they had received formal library instruction from a librarian. However, no direct correlation could be shown between years of teaching experience and respondents' perceived value of library research instruction. Nor did a correlation exist to show that respondents with fewer years of teaching experience were more likely to ask a librarian to provide formal library instruction to their students. In fact, respondents with more than 20 years of teaching experience provided most types of library instruction more often than less experienced respondents. Overall, USC faculty rated their students' abilities to conduct library research very low. However, they had slightly more confidence in their students' abilities to find, evaluate, and use information they found on the Internet over information from traditional print sources.     

Factors Predicting the Importance of Libraries and Research Activities for Undergraduates

While prior research has established linkages between undergraduate students' library use, research participation, and success, researchers know little about the importance undergraduates place upon libraries and research activities. Utilizing data from the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) survey, the purpose of this paper was to examine factors associated with the importance of libraries and research among undergraduates at nine large, public research universities. The results of this study suggest a variety of factors are positively associated with the importance of libraries and research for students, including participation in research activities, interest in medical or research careers, academic engagement, faculty interactions, library satisfaction, and development of library skills, among others.     

Paper Trail: One method of information literacy assessment

Assessing students' information literacy skills can be difficult depending on the involvement of the librarian in a course. To overcome this, librarians created an assignment called the Paper Trail, where students wrote a short essay about their research process and reflected on what they would do differently. Through reviewing and grading these papers, librarians determined whether students understood the difference between the library catalog and article databases, evaluated the students' search terms to see if they used effective topic keywords and Boolean operators, and learned more on how the students reflected on their research process.     

We Won't Be Fooled Again: Teaching Critical Thinking via Evaluation of Hoax and Historical Revisionist Websites in a Library Credit Course

ABSTRACT

At Central Michigan University, librarians teach multiple sections of an eight-week, one-credit research skills class to hundreds of undergraduate students each semester. While the main focus of the course is to teach students how to find, use, and properly cite library resources, librarians also address critical thinking skills by designing lessons to teach World Wide Web organization and how to analyze the information found via search engines. Showing student's obvious hoax sites about “tree octopi” and “male pregnancy” introduces the concepts of critical thinking and Website analysis. Most students quickly refute the information on such sites. However, students have a more difficult time assessing social, historical, or political revisionist Web sites' validity. Contrasting those claims with evidence accepted by international courts, historians, and scientists is useful in pointing out the flaws of seemingly well documented but one-sided revisionist sites. There are dangers in exposing students to these groups via their Websites. Yet, it is important to do so in order to convey the importance of critical analysis of information. The authors discuss students' pre- and post-test (CMU's online assessment tool, the “research readiness self-assessment” [RRSA]) scores to determine whether critical thinking skills have improved.     

Developing health information literacy: a needs analysis from the perspective of preprofessional health students

Objective:

The research identified the skills, if any, that health preprofessional students wished to develop after receiving feedback on skill gaps as well as any strategies they intended to use to address these gaps.

Methods:

A qualitative approach was used to elicit students'' reflections on building health information literacy skills. First, the students took the Research Readiness Self-Assessment instrument, which measured their health information literacy, and then they received individually tailored feedback about their scores and skill gaps. Second, students completed a post-assessment survey asking how they intended to close identified gaps in their skills on these. Three trained coders analyzed qualitative comments by 181 students and grouped them into themes relating to “what skills to improve” and “how to improve them.”

Results:

Students intended to develop library skills (64% of respondents), Internet skills (63%), and information evaluation skills (63%). Most students reported that they would use library staff members'' assistance (55%), but even more respondents (82%) planned to learn the skills by practicing on their own. Getting help from librarians was a much more popular learning strategy than getting assistance from peers (20%) or professors (17%).

Conclusions:

The study highlighted the importance of providing health preprofessional students with resources to improve skills on their own, remote access to library staff members, and instruction on the complexity of building health literacy skills, while also building relationships among students, librarians, and faculty.

Highlights

• After receiving feedback on skill gaps, most preprofessional health students intend to develop their information literacy skills.
• Some students report that a trip to the library is a barrier to using library resources.
• Students see the need to build their information evaluation skills, knowledge of citations and plagiarism, and library skills, which they differentiate from Internet skills.
• Students are more likely to identify librarians as sources for assistance in finding information than faculty or peers after receiving individual feedback explaining the role of libraries and library staff members.

Implications

• Students'' health information competencies can be built through assessment and feedback that reveals skill gaps, highlights misconceptions, and offers ideas on how to improve.
• Access to professionally designed self-study resources is needed for students who intend to develop health information competencies on their own.

     

Graduate LIS Students' Attitude Toward University Libraries and Personnel

This is an attitudinal survey that profiles Kuwait University Library and Information Science (KULIS) students' attitudes concerning Kuwait University's (KU's) libraries. It uses the phenomenological approach to analyze respondents' data regarding confidence in their skills and the effect on attitude toward KU's resources. It furthermore explores the attitudes of KU staff and the level of assistance offered to KULIS students. The results show that most of the respondents visited the library to access electronic resources. Some respondents disagreed that the staff had treated the KULIS suspiciously, yet a majority disagreed that the KU library staff was professionally trained to help KULIS students. Several respondents strongly agreed that they were confident in their searching skills. The results of the survey are used to recommend curriculum changes and ways to improve library and other academic support services at academic institutions generally.     

Library Anxiety and Emotion Perception Among the Undergraduate Social Sciences Students: A Relationship Study

ABSTRACT

Previous research has mostly focused on the demographic and academic correlates of library anxiety. This study focused on the “library anxiety” and “emotion perception” of students, with the objective of examining the relationship between these two concepts. In total, 279 self-reporting questionnaires were used for analysis. The results confirmed the existence of the phenomenon of library anxiety, with these students being more anxious regarding the “user education” and “user knowledge” factors. They showed greater skills of emotion perception. A negatively significant relationship appeared between library anxiety and emotion perception. The results suggest that user education and emotion perception training programs should be developed to overcome students' problems.     

Academic library spaces and student activities during the COVID-19 pandemic

A library in higher education plays a primary role in students' learning on campus. In addition to individually-focused studying, students come to a library for various purposes, such as group learning, collaborating, and socializing. To support students' different types of learning, appropriate physical and functional environments of the spaces must be provided. However, the environmental effects of learning spaces have not been explored extensively. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced students to remain and study at home for extended periods, and it is expected that the pandemic experience has affected students' space use patterns. This study aims to examine the effect of the pandemic on students' library usage and to investigate the necessary environments to effectively support students' learning activities. Data was collected via interviews with 12 students. One of the main findings is that, even though students used the library less during the pandemic, they expected to use it as much as pre-pandemic or even more after the pandemic. Furthermore, both physical and functional environments were associated with the study performance and wellbeing of the students. Therefore, understanding students' learning activities and preferred environments in a library is critical to providing appropriate spaces supporting students' learning performance and wellbeing.     

Question formulation skills training using a novel rubric with first-year medical students

Objective:The authors used an assessment rubric to measure medical students'' improvement in question formulation skills following a brief evidence-based practice (EBP) training session conducted by a health sciences librarian.Method:In a quasi-experimental designed study, students were assessed using a rubric on their pre-instructional skills in formulating answerable EBP questions, based on a clinical scenario. Following their training, they were assessed using the same scenario and rubric. Student pre- and post-test scores were compared using a paired t-test.Results:Students demonstrated statistically significant improvement in their question formulation skills on their post-instructional assessments. The average score for students on the pre-test was 45.5 (SD 11.1) and the average score on the post-test was 65.6 (SD 5.4) with an average increase of 20.1 points on the 70-point scale, p<0.001.Conclusion:The brief instructional session aided by the rubric improved students'' performance in question formulation skills.     

FROM THE EDITOR

Abstract

This paper reports on a survey of faculty perceptions of the role of the library in online distance education. The study is second in a series of related studies exploring The Pennsylvania State University's library services to patrons at a distance. In 2004, faculty of the World Campus (Penn State's online distance education program) were surveyed on their perceptions of e-learners' research needs. The faculty responded to questions on how their students access research information for their courses, whether they require their students to use the library as part of their courses, and their expectations of the library as an academic support service. The survey revealed that 60% of the responding faculty supply all of the required research information to students in their courses, and 62% do not require students to use the library as part of their course(s). The study concludes that online, distance-education faculty members have minimal to moderate expectations of the library in supporting their teaching and their students' research needs. Moreover, the study shows a significant lack of faculty awareness of existing library services and resources available to the e-learning community.     

How Can the University Library Better Meet the Information Needs of Research Students? Experiences From Ulster University

This article investigates academic library needs of doctoral students. The study identifies PhD students' information literacy training needs and explores current levels of library engagement, barriers to use, and gaps in existing services. First-year PhD students at Ulster University (UU) were surveyed and interviews were undertaken with three students. Findings show that just over half the respondents start their research from the Library's e-journal interface or library databases and these resources are also their main research tools. Minimal use was made of social media or apps. Students' ability to correctly identify different source types within a reference did not match the confidence they expressed in their own abilities, and two thirds were not aware of basic e-book capabilities. However, over 90% of the respondents strongly agreed that the university library service was essential for their research. The article concludes with a number of recommendations on improving library services for PhD students.     

Does the medium matter?: A comparison of a Web-based tutorial with face-to-face library instruction on education students' self-efficacy levels and learning outcomes

This study explored if students' library skills self-efficacy levels and learning outcomes varied based on instructional delivery mode. Groups consisted of an on-campus class with face-to-face instruction, an on-campus class with a Web-based library tutorial, and a Web-based class with a Web-based tutorial. Data were collected immediately prior to instruction and again 6 weeks after. Analysis indicated self-efficacy levels and learning outcomes significantly increased across all groups after instruction. Groups varied significantly on final self-efficacy levels, but not on final library skills scores. Results are discussed as they relate to the viability of Web-based tutorials for library instruction.     

Stacks,Serials, Search Engines,and Students' Success: First-Year Undergraduate Students' Library Use,Academic Achievement,and Retention

Like other units within colleges and universities, academic libraries are subject to increasing internal and external pressures to demonstrate their contributions to institutional goals related to students' success. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between first-year undergraduate students' use of the academic library, academic achievement, and retention. Results of ordinary least squares regressions predicting first-year students' cumulative grade point averages (GPA) and logistic regressions predicting students' first-year to second-year retention suggest that students who used academic library services and resources at least once during the academic year had higher GPA and retention on average than their peers who did not use library services. The results of two separate regressions predicting students' GPA by 10 different types of library use suggest that four library use areas were consistently and positively associated with students' GPA: database logins, book loans, electronic journal logins, and library workstation logins. The results of two separate logistic regression analyses suggest that logging into databases and using library workstations were actions consistently and positively associated with students' retention. Additional results predicted by students' use of services at least one time and by one-unit increases in the frequency of library area uses are discussed.     

Information Behavior and Japanese Students: How Can an Understanding of the Research Process Lead to Better Information Literacy?

Academic librarians are striving to better serve international students as this emerging population grows on university campuses. Past studies of international students generally focus on linguistic and cultural differences in relation to information literacy skills development. However, it is necessary to go beyond these factors to better serve the population. By using a framework based in information behavior research, the present study investigates the factors that mediate students' behavior and information literacy skills. Practical recommendations based on the findings of an in-depth qualitative study of students' research process are provided.     

A Review of “Profiles of New York State—Facts,Figures & Statistics for 2,365 Populated Places in New York”

In 2015, the information literacy (IL) team designed an instrument to determine international graduate business students' perceptions of their IL skills and their actual test-assessed IL skills. The purpose of this research was to compare international graduate students' perceptions of their IL skills versus their test-assessed competencies, with the aim of creating training modules to improve test-identified deficiencies. Results demonstrate that wide discrepancies exist between students' perceptions of their own skills and their actual skills on all six ILA-topic areas assessed by the internally developed test instruments, with students overestimating their abilities in all areas.     

Freshman Overconfidence and Library Research Skills: A Troubling Relationship?

This study focuses on the relationship between freshman college students’ self-reported confidence level in library research and their actual library research skills. A demographic survey and skills test were administered to 377 freshmen at East Carolina University in their first-semester English composition classes. The article addresses two research questions: What is the correlation between freshman students’ self-reported confidence level and tested skills? Do other factors such as age, gender, high school grades, or previous library instruction have an impact on students’ confidence level or skills? Results examine implications for library instruction.     

Relationship of Library Skills with Selected Personal And Academic Variables: A Study of the Undergraduate Students of Kuwait University

The study aimed at ascertaining the level of library skills of the freshmen and sophomores in the College of Science at Kuwait University. It further tested whether there existed any significant relationships between the level of command of library skills and personal and academic factors of age, gender, type of high school the students had attended, class level, student GPA, and level of English proficiency. Cluster sampling was used to conduct this survey. Data were analysed using frequency counts and mean scores and conducting chi-square tests to determine if there existed any significant associations.It was noted that the surveyed students were generally deficient in library skills. Further, it was found that the variables of age and type of secondary school were significantly related to the levels of their library skills. Conversely, the variables of English proficiency, gender, class level, and GPA did not exhibit any significant relationships.     

Influences on Undergraduate Business Students' Perceptions About the Adequacy of Library Information Resources

This qualitative study was designed to provide insight into the responses of undergraduate business students to a survey item about the adequacy of library resources. Interviews with seven business majors revealed that students were not aware of the information resources available to them and that they found library resources overwhelming and confusing. The findings of this study did not reveal that additional business information resources should be provided to support students, but the study did yield useful information about what influences undergraduate business students' perceptions of and expectations about the information resources provided by the library. The article includes recommendations for increasing students' awareness of specialized business databases and improving students' perception that the content of these databases is useful for their coursework.